[chasil]

Russia invaded and occupied the Sakhalin islands near the end of World War II. Native Japanese were allowed to leave, as I understand it.

"Japan invaded the northern parts of Sakhalin, and ruled the entire island from 1918 to 1925. Russia has held all of the island since seizing the Japanese portion in the final days of World War II in 1945, as well as all of the Kurils."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin

[gonzalohm]

That was literally in August 1945. Basically using the confusion after the bombs were dropped to gain territory

[chasil]

Interesting, I did not know that the Soviets declared war against Japan between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonations.